How Novalogic made Missions?
 

Hello,

I play Delta Force series for many years. My best was BHD and I decided to learn how to make missions, and I am pretty good at it (Events etc.) however I see all these "profesional" missions that are made for the game and I have the question. Did they use another editor to make these missions?

Did they used just the Official Editor :huh:?

Thanks!

I doubt thay did, or atleast in another form :) (But I don't know for sure, just guesstimating ;))

I've always wondered this too.

It's obviously not the MED that's included with the game since we've been getting "unlocked" versions since DF2.

I'd guess they used the standard, unlocked MED (why else would they build such a large tool to give to the community?) until NILE came out. Not sure what they used at that point.

If you look in the DFX (or DFBHD) .pff files all the officail NOVA map "events" are done in .wac form.
I would guess that NOVA used the .wac because some events (mainly .wav files) would ultimatly require the .wac anyway.

NOVA released the MED editor with no tech support, recomending that the customer use the NILE editor.

Just me, but I perfer the MED over NILE.

I agree with you guys and thans for replying. By the way, I found the Game missions (.mis) files and I checked them out in the MED, as I can see there are tons of objects in the mission maps so that's why I believe it was made in another editor (perhaps a 3D one?)

Well...If NovaLogic could give us any 3D editors that could be awesome :P.

Also I've heard about NILE, however it seems to be difficult.

ADD:

I wanted also to add that I heard NILE is only for JointOps? In other words can someone use it for DFBHD Maps?

I have worked out that they must have used embedded variables which do not show in the MEd there must be a master MEd or most likely several tools used in the process. The med appears to me to be just an end user type version and does not create objects.

(I found evidence in most of their single player maps...also notice the vars go from -10000 to 10000)

As an example I once opened a BHD mission wac that had variable 14 in it.

When I looked at the events in the corresponding .mis file with the editor there was no reference to variable 14 to be found.

The objects are created in 3d modeling programs.

If you look inside the PFF files in DFBHD , you'll notice some files with .AIN extension, these files contains AI node information that makes the AI not to get stuck in walls or buildings when they follow waypoints, but there's no program to create or edit those files. So Novalogic has probably used many other tools to create their missions, they have the answers..

Most files in the .pff can be edited with notepad to change vehicle behaviours and enviroment settings.
Also, you don't have to import them back into the .pff file. They will work by just being placed back into the game folder.

EDIT: Just make sure to rename the file you edit so you don't overwrite an official NOVALOGIC file !!
And if you make a map with an EDITED file from the .pff ,then you'll have to include that file with your map when you upload to the map database.

Good Dave...Yes, running the files from the Game folder is best and also keeps pff's clean for online sessions :)


PS

G-Day folks!

They more or less use the MED, I think. Most of the extra cinematics and effects (like camera panning) are done through external files (the ones for the campaign maps are all packed into a file in your game folder). The campaign is set up through some kind of text file (I haven't tried using it though).

The rest I'm guessing is hard coded into the game, but most of what Nova did with each campaign can be done by mapmakers too. A few things we don't know how to create, like AI Node files (AIN). AIN's tell your teammates and the enemy what not to run into (walls, etc.) and ways to go around them. We have to mimic this through waypoints (unfortunately, a tedious process at times and extremely prone to breaking).

Getting the unlocked MED will give much more functionality. The original MED sucks compared to the unlocked one.

Yes! Correct!

Thanks Dashie, We do have almost all the tools and knowledge to duplicate a Novalogic Single Player Campaign but then again, why wouldn't they keep something to themselves.

The MEd is a great gift and IMO is the reason it (Delta Force) has lasted this long.

Thanks for replying guys, however I still believe that they may used an external tool for some features.

I unpacked the 4th mission with a pff editor and with my bms2mis program I was able to edit it. My questions here is:

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3...795b90e166.png

Is this possible for MED? I mean, no one can see what's happening there (it's the garage).

So that's why I am still confused but it seems to me that they have used a 3D Editor :huh:

Any suggestions about this?

Layers. Containing the mess is all about layers.

Well, I didn't noticed this. Yea, it is possible. Well it seems that they probably made the missions in the released one.

Thanks everyone for answering!

Select an area and view it in 3D Wireframe, place a player start marker in the viewed area set the map to single player with Player re-spawn ticked and have a look. It's just a matter of getting used to visualizing a bit more than the NILE.

If you build the map yourself it's much easier to understand what's going on.

When looking at a complex and unfamiliar map like the above it's no wonder it seems difficult to see what's happening but after JOE even Novalogic returned to using the MEd over the NILE to make their missions.